• Kylie Minogue was honoured with the JC Williamson Award for her outstanding contribution to the Australian live entertainment industry at the annual Helpmann Awards, held at the Sydney Opera House on Monday night. The pop princess was honoured alongside some of the cream of Australia’s entertainment industry.
• Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band took out the award for Best International Contemporary Concert, with Paul Kelly and Neil Finn bagging the Best Australian Contemporary Concert award. Byron Bay’s Bluesfest picked up the award for Best Contemporary Music Festival.
• A slightly quieter week at media this week, with the biggest names doing the rounds being Wendy Matthews (‘Follow You Down’), Rizzle Kicks (‘Lost Generation’) and Cimorelli (‘Made In America’). As always, we’ll be posting a more comprehensive list of new tunes at radio over on our FACEBOOK page tomorrow. If you ‘Like’ us, it might even show up in your feed!
• One of the new tracks that is doing the rounds this week is courtesy of Melbourne-based hip hop artist Pez, who’s dispensed his feel-good new single ‘One Life’ (cover pictured). It’s the latest to be lifted from the performer’s forthcoming album, due later in the year, and features his brother Tys in a guest vocal role.
• Plenty of album announcements this week, with confirmation of Lady Gaga’s forthcoming LP ‘ARTPOP’ in November, AFI’s new album ‘Burials’ on October 18, The Paper Kites’ new LP ‘States’ due on August 30, Tumbleweed’s ‘Sounds From The Other Side’ set for a September 27 release and The Naked And Famous dropping their new album ‘In Rolling Waves’ on September 13.
• Liberation Music has revealed the release next month of ‘Perfect Tripod Australian Songs’, a compilation of cover versions of (you guessed it) classic Aussie songs performed by Eddie Perfect and Tripod. Among the 13 tracks are covers of Kylie’s ‘Better The Devil You Know’, John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’, Bee Gees’ ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ and Little River Band’s ‘Reminiscing’. It’s out on Friday August 23.
• Iconic Aussie outfit Dragon will hit the road in special acoustic mode in September and October for a quintet of live dates across New South Wales. They’ll kick things off at Lizotte’s in Dee Why on September 26, visiting the venue’s other locations in Newcastle and Kincumber on the following nights before wrapping things up with shows at The Vanguard and The Brass Monkey on October 11 and 12 respectively.
• Sydney trio Rüfüs will also hit the road in September and October, though their tour takes them beyond the border of New South Wales and into the ACT, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. The ‘Atlas’ tour is in celebration of their forthcoming album release and kicks off at Newcastle’s Cambridge Hotel on Thursday September 12.
• Another Sydney trio in The Holidays are also touring in September and October. The tour comes off the back of the release of their new single ‘Voices Drifting’ and comprises three dates; Good God Small Club in Sydney on September 19, Northcote Social Club in Melbourne on October 03 and Brisbane’s Alhambra Lounge on October 12.
• Australia’s first lady of soul Renee Geyer will perform a special one-off show at Melbourne’s Flying Saucer Club on August 16. In what’s promised to be an extended show, Renee will be playing tracks from her latest album ‘Swing’ along with a collection of her biggest hits.
• Avicii’s strong showing on the UK singles chart with ‘Wake Me Up’ continues for the second successive week and in doing so he nixes the star power of One Direction and their new single ‘Best Song Ever’, relegating the boys’ new single to a No.2 debut. The rest of the top ten moves around by only one to three positions.
• Robin Thicke loses his No.1 spot on the UK albums chart after just one week… 2012 British ‘X Factor’ runner-up Jahméne Douglas hits the No.1 position with his debut long player ‘Love Never Fails’, knocking Robin to No.2 and Jay-Z (or is that now JAY Z) to No.3. David Guetta’s ‘Nothing But The Beat’ is back into the top ten, but the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Electric’ slips from No.3 to No.28. The Cody Simpson album is gone from the top 100 after debuting at No.30 last week.
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